Similar Themes, Different Cultural Contexts

The Awakening (1899) is the cannon of the American female writer Kate Chopin. Kate Chopin successfully applied her vibrant language to the portrayal of the heroine Edna who chafed against social norms. The Awakening is hailed as the landmark of feminist novel. Children of Light is the novel written by contemporary American writer Robert Stone, which was published in 1986. The plot of Children of Light is centered on the filming making of The Awakening. Lu Anne, the leading actress of the film version of The Awakening has a lot in common with Edna Pontellier whereas Lu Anne and Edna Pontellier live in different cultural contexts. This thesis is to reveal the patriarchal power's oppression on women in two different times by contrasting the two female protagonists'living circumstances.The title of this thesis is Similar Theme, Different Cultural Contexts—on Children of Light's reconstruction of The Awakening. Reconstruction encompasses two levels of meanings:Children of Light's rewriting of The Awakening means that the former shares the theme of the later; Children of Light's recreation of The Awakening means that the former sets the plot in the different cultural context from the latter. Lu Anne, the film star in Children of Light, was playing the leading role Edna Pontellier in the film The Awakening was adapted by Gordon Walker who was Lu Anne's former lover a decade ago. It proved to be an irretrievably bad decision that Gordon Walker reunited with Lu Anne at the movie shooting set, for Lu Anne's mentality was unstable and he himself was in the middle-age crisis. Lu Anne resembling Edna's death finally ended her life at the end of the novel. Surprisingly, Gordon Walker gained his normal life back at the end of the story. The tragedies of both heroines are analyzed in light of the uniqueness of cultural backdrops of their times.The whole design of this thesis is governed by the feminist perspective. The thesis consists of five sections. The first section is the Introduction which contains literature review on both novels and presents the layout and significance of this thesis. The second section is Chapter One that delves into the cultural factors and social values confining Edna to domestic life and compounding on Lu Anne's unstable mentality. For Edna Pontellier, the backward virtues imposed on women are the major causes of her tragedy; for Lu Anne, the combination of commercial culture and film industry is the culprit of her death. Chapter Two goes further in unveiling "centers" are mainly the men who repressed heroines in their lives. In Chapter Three, it is proved that times have changed and progressed over centuries by contrasting social effects caused by the suicidal deaths of the both heroines. The reasons for the changes and progresses are also included in Chapter Three. The Conclusion is set to sum up the theme and study approaches of this thesis. The ultimate purpose of this thesis is to call on lasting and vast attention to be paid to women's social position and existing circumstances in society which is still governed by the patriarchal influences in some areas.